Sunshine, Birds, Grass, Smiles

Doesn't he look great? This was our PT outing today. We got Parker outside in front of the hospital, near the grass, under the trees, where he could hear the flocks of birds that are everywhere. The inner courtyard the other day was pretty awesome, but this... this was great. So good for Parker's soul. And mine.

He walked without the walker for a few steps for the first time, also. Then Lindsey, our dedicated PT person, spent a good chunk of the morning tracking down the right wheelchair so we could take him outside, and so off we went. The birds cooperated by putting on an appropriately perfect symphony. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, it was hot ~ just the way Parker likes it ~ and the shade from the trees added a beautiful finishing touch.


Here are more photo of some of our favorite people, those who have become so much more than "just" our health care team on this incredible journey. We feel their friendships are God's reward for fighting so hard to get well.

This is Lisa from New Hampshire. Lisa has lived here about a year and a half. She loves to garden, and one of the things she likes about Austin the most is the long growing season as compared to New England. She is an outdoors person, rides her bike to work every day, volunteers at a coop bookstore, raises chickens in her back yard, and she became my hero when she brought Parker his first piece of fruit he'd had in months. Lisa is one of our favorite nurses, and our most fun hospital days are when we have Lisa and Amy together. Then we laugh all day. I told Lisa today when we were discussing Parker's digestive system woes that it is an odd way to form a friendship, while talking about poop and throw up.



Lindsey is our fabulous, energetic, compassionate, tough-love-when-he-needs-it PT person. The same Lindsey who brought Parker a stack of movies when we had only been out of ICU for a few days in order to help him focus on something other than his pain. Lindsey is from Ohio, but is married to a former military guy so they moved around a lot. She has a HUGE smile which lights up our room. I really attribute so much of Parker's success in physical therapy to her ever encouraging optimism. When Parker gets out of the hospital we are going to get together for Monopoly. Seeing Lindsey is one of the highlights of our day.



Here are more random, outdoor photos of Parker from today: